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Monday, December 30, 2013

I just bought these headphones with a built-in micro-SD reader for playing MP3 files as well as an FM radio function that I never plan to use from CD-R King. The construction is pretty much china quality, although to their credit, at least the parts seem pretty solid/not made out of cheap plastic (made out of cheap metal instead).

Included in the package:

-The headphones -5 sets of generic glossy printed carboard decals/faceplates -1 audio/mic cable-1 usb charging cable The headphones are a bit on the small side, with the earpieces measuring in at around 7 centimeters and the faceplates measuring in at 5 cm (per second... lol). As far as comfort goes, they don't seem too bad so far. Nice and comfy, although I do feel that it can get a bit snug around the ears for long periods. I'll have to test them out first to really find out.

Default generic faceplates. Not too shabby, but not for me.

The sound quality is ok, but not spectacular. It's a bit heavy on the bass and there are no mixer options unlike the MJ-168 series of MP3 player phones (also from China :P). The sound coming out of the headphones has a tendency to seem like it's coming from inside a tunnel, but it's not that bad. I wouldn't say the sound quality is outstanding, but it works well enough for me.The mp3 player function is a definite plus for me since these are going to be pretty useful for jogging/playing tennis/exercising in general. The headphones come with a blue led indicator for when it's on and a red led indicator for when it's charging.

The best thing about these headphones however, is that you can actually swap the faceplates around. There are two transparent plastic covers for each side and the headphones come with several pairs of circular, glossy cardboard decals that you can swap around. Naturally, this allows for easy customization since you can just print out your own decals on photopaper or just plain old paper. Here's a test printout I made on plain paper using my own artwork of Sanzen'in Nagi from Hayate no Gotoku!

First thing I did was to print out my own faceplates

I also made some miku-themed faceplates among others. The possibilities are endless! These headphones are currently being sold at PHP 680.00 per piece at any CD-R King branch that stocks them. That's around 15 USD.

My custom faceplates printed out on glossy photo paper and cut out with scissors

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

I’ll try to
write this article from a journalistic perspective, although I trust you’ll
forgive me if I tend to ramble on and insert my personal feelings here and
there and if I refuse to drop any proper nouns here. The video attached to this
post covers the entire incident involving the police, although it probably will
not make sense to you unless you understand Hiligaynon. Also, let me make two
things clear here:

I'm not a professional journalist (no one is paying me to do this)

I got personally involved in this incident

It happened
at around 12:30 – 1:30 AM on December 25, 2013. I was inside my house together
with my mother – washing the dishes after our late Christmas Dinner (a little
Filipino tradition called Noche Buena in our country.) We heard the continuous
crackle of fireworks and saw a succession of multi-colored fireworks explosions
in the sky from our house and immediately thought, “Isn’t that illegal in our
area?”

This is
because we live in an area where people manufacture and sell fireworks during
December and although I can’t say I’m fully familiar with it, there is a law in
effect that prohibits the testing and setting off of fireworks within the
vicinity of these fireworks factories as well as places selling fireworks.Of course, my mother and I got a bit worried
as well because we rent out the area that is beyond our walls, but still within
our private property to some neighbors who sell fireworks annually.

When I arrived with my mother outside, I started taking a video immediately with my smartphone
just in case there was anything amiss. The neighbors explained the situation as
follows: Someone had set off a 16-flare fireworks display called an “air show”
and it was apparently done by someone just across the road. They had already
been reprimanded by the “Barangay Tanod,” (a sort of local peacekeeping force
consisting of citizens who live in the neighborhood, but who are not armed with
guns like actual police) but they refused to listen.

Eventually,
a concerned neighbor went and called the police because some of the disgruntled
fireworks vendors were getting restless and violent. Voices were being raised
against the people who allegedly set off the fireworks and I personally saw
someone take out a metal baseball bat.

Now here’s
where it gets interesting: when the police arrived, they immediately went right
across the road from our house and about two blocks to the left where the
fireworks had apparently been set off. My mother and I got curious and we moved
in a little bit closer but still across the road to get a better look at what
exactly was happening. I warned her in advance not to get involved unless it
was necessary. This is when one of the neighbors who had been renting the space
in front of our house asked us for help. Apparently, the police were refusing
to take action because no one could be positively identified so they had no one
to arrest. Since we did have some personal stakes in this since our house could
have been burned down if there had been an incident with the fireworks, she
decided to get involved, so I reluctantly joined her to talk to the police. The
video shows the entire talk we had, but allow me to summarize it because it’s
mostly in Hiligaynon.

At the
point when we started talking to the police, I was still taking a video with my
smartphone camera. My intent in continuing to take the video this time was to
protect my own personal interests in case things got ugly – which is quite
reasonable in this kind of situation, right? Anyway there were three
policeofficers present and since they
refused to take action, I pointed out that there were dozens of witnesses and
at least 4 of them were Barangay Tanod who were allegedly present during the
incident. The police officer, a man who looked to be somewhere in his
mid-thirties to forties told me that they couldn’t do anything because they
couldn’t make an arrest if no one could be positively identified – in this
case, I simply shifted the responsibility to him: I asked him, “well, what can
you do in this type of situation wherein you know that there has been a
violation of the law, but that no one can positively identify the exact
culprit?”

(Voice that
starts speaking at 9:52 into the video) Suddenly, a younger police officer, who
looked to be about 5 years younger than me (and half a head shorter) talked to
me from behind and said in a stern but low voice in Hiligaynon “So what’s your
point really, sir?What’s your point
with that camera here? What are you really taking that video for?” I was taken
aback by this young upstart because he was literally thrusting his chest out to
within an inch of mine, his boots were almost on top of my sandals, and he was
– by all appearances attempting to threaten my person. I told him to take a
step back and to stop invading my personal space – which he took about 30
seconds to comply with. In any case, this was enough time for my mother to
notice this and become visibly alarmed at what he was doing/attempting to do.
So much so that I had to tell her to “stop” and to “let me handle this.”

There was a
lot of confusion, but eventually, I managed to tell him honestly that I was
taking the video because I was gathering evidence just in case some abuses took
place. It could happen on the part of the police, or on the part of the people
in the vicinity – since a considerable crowd had already gathered. There was a
lot of talking and a lot of hyperventilating that ensued (mostly on my mother’s
part, because she got understandably emotional), but what it boils down to is
that none of the Barangay Tanod (who were witnesses) would agree to identify
any of the culprit/s and that the police eventually agreed to have a blotter
report written on behalf of the neighbor who complained about the incident
pending further investigation at this point.

What does this say about us
Filipinos?

Now I would
like to say that this was just an isolated incident wherein one of the police
officers got a little high-handed and incompetent, but from what I’ve
seen/heard on the local media (until now that I actually got involved), this
kind of thing happens on a daily basis.

Basically,
what ticks me off here is that if it had been anyone less knowledgeable about
their rights than me, that police officer would probably have used his position
to push me around and then forcibly confiscate my smartphone. What he was doing
was unwarranted and totally unjustifiable because as you can see in that video,
I was talking quite calmly and rationally the whole time. This also highlights
another problem: not all Filipinos know their rights very well – not even the
ones that are constitutionally guaranteed by the bill of rights. After the
incident, one of our neighbors said that, “It’s a good thing that it was someone
as smart as you.” I replied that, “even if it hadn’t been me, that policeman
was overstepping his authority.” The neighbor was dumbfounded and could only
reply, “Really? You mean they can’t do that? They do it all the time here
though.”

Another thing
that irritates me is that the lack of knowledge leads to fear of authority and
legal processes. Thefour Barangay Tanod
who were present refused to identify any of the alleged perpetrators here not
because they didn’t really know who the culprits were but because they were
afraid to be investigated by the police and that this incident would be taken
against them for failing to uphold the law.

Relevant to
this: the policeman who attempted to harass me also had the same mindset. From
his actuations, it was clear that he thought that I must have had some kind of
vendetta against the police and that I was taking that video with evil
intentions in mind. It was well within my rights to take that video not only
because it was a public incident, but also because it was the best way to have
a good record of the entire procedure to protect my rights just in case they
were violated. After all, they have the guns: I don’t – and I seem to have had
every right to think this way based on the clear lack of knowledge demonstrated
by that policeman in this video.

A local government legislator
refused to take action

One of our
neighbors who is a local government legislator blatantly refused to take action
or get involved in the incident for fear of tarnishing his reputation for the
next local elections.

The police apologized

The two
older policemen present at the incident apologized for their partner’s actions
and the policeman who attempted to harass me personally apologized to me as
well. I thought nothing more of the incident although I cannot say the same for
my mother. I don’t intend to take any legal action against the officer who
clearly overstepped his authority and I’m not really the proper party to file a
complaint against the culprit/s who set off the fireworks display. I was just
trying to do my part and set things straight because we were inadvertently
personally involved with this issue. The problem with that police officer was
quite evident – lack of knowledge of the boundaries of his authority. In the end,
I felt the need to point out that even if he did apologize, his initial
approach towards me was very threatening.

Implications on the legal systems in
effect in the Philippines

I truly
hope that this was just an isolated incident and that this kind of thing
doesn’t happen on a regular basis – but again, based on what I’ve seen/heard on
local media, this was probably not a one-time thing as far as the execution of
the legal systems in effect in the Philippines are concerned. In fact, I’ve
always been convinced that the people in power in the Philippines are pretty
damn incompetent – and this incident just serves to further cement this belief
in place. I’ve never voted for a single elective official in my life and I
probably never will. If you live in the Philippines or plan to live here: the
greatest piece of advice I can give you is to arm yourself with sufficient
knowledge all the time – otherwise, opportunistic idiots can and will take
advantage of you.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

We get a Hina cover for the fanservice chapter this time. Not implying anything with that. Not at all~

Synopsis: The Student Council Rangers/
Baka-Trio, Izumiand the two others
(Miki and Risa) are inside what is presumably the Hakuo Aacademy’s student
council building and playing cards with a twist: half of the cards are
transparent. This chapter also doubles as “blatant advertising” for the
see-through playing cards that come with the limited edition of the Japanese
volume 39 of Hayate The Combat Butler. Anyway, Hina eventually comes along and
Miki convinces her to join in and play a game of strip poker (by egging her on
like a little kid. For some reason, Izumi has to strip just in case Miki loses
while Hina has to strip completely naked if she loses. Miki loses the first
game so she declares that Izumi has to take off her panties. Izumi is
reluctant, but does so anyway. The game goes on and Miki loses two more times
to Hina until Izumi is completely naked – mostly because she got all the hax
hands for some reason. Miki wants to keep playing and Hina happily obliges.
Meanwhile, Izumi asks Risa if it’s ok to put her clothes back on now… and that’s
the final chapter of Hayate The Combat Butler for this year. The next one will
be released officially on January 8 and hopefully, it’ll continue on with the
main story.

She needs to stop caving in to the other two's demands

Review: Awww… we don’t get to see Hisui’s
face yet. Well, that’s to be expected since this was a filler/gag chapter of
course. It wasn’t really anything special other than being blatant advertising
for the transparent cards that come with the limited edition of volume 39 of
this manga (I wish I could buy it myself). The characters were cute as usual and the fanservice level was
pretty tame and done tastefully – even with Izumi stripping. Not much to say
about this chapter except to point out that it doesn’t happen anywhere within
the continuity of the main story – but that’s okay since this is a nice little
break that’s been a long time coming. This is actually the first time that I’ve
encountered a break like this ever since I started blogging this manga. It
would have been nice to have a Christmas-themed chapter for this release,
though.In any case, Happy Holidays to
all Hayate The Combat Butler fans! Let’s look forward to another great year for
this manga when it resumes on January 8.

Hax... some might say the same thing about the main heroine as far as plot-related developments are concerned.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Got a little bored while waiting for the next chapter of Hayate The Combat Butler, so I decided to make this little otaku culture post.

Now most people have this stereotypical image of the overweight, pimply-faced otaku who has developed an aversion for this strange land called "the outside."

The thing is, while I do identify myself as an otaku since according to Nagi ojou-sama here...

Got that, Chiharu?

And I do pretty much all of those and then some -- including collecting anime figures, and shamelessly wearing t-shirts featuring my own fanart of my favorite anime heroines like so:

Dem shades!

Anywayz, I go outside pretty often to play Tennis on a nearly daily basis, do some running, or just take a walk around and check out what otaku/non-otaku merchandise the local stores are selling.

But... I do like to bring all my otaku gaming/web surfing/anime viewing stuff with me, which includes:

1 PSP

1 PS Vita

1 NDSL

2 Android Tablets

1 Portable Power Bank

1 Coin Purse

Which I like to stuff all inside this nifty little Hatsune Miku messenger/sling bag.

Otaku survival tools

Now you might be thinking: LOL! Silly kid, you're gonna cry a river if someone ever tries to snatch/rob you of all that stuff; especially with a girly little bag like that.

And you would be quite correct, of course -- which is why you need to always bring along some... equalizers :DIf you're going to journey to "the outside," with all these items, you also need to bring along the proper equipment. Depending on your area, one small firearm might be more effective... but carrying guns is banned here during certain times of the year. So personally, I like to bring along some... "thief deterrents" in a separate not-so-girly duffel bag like so:

Tools for "personal defense" LOL

Breakdown of items:

1 baton sword

1 extendible baton

1 huge-ass jungle knife

1 switchblade

1 pair of nunchucks

2 arnis sticks

1 heavy metal flashlight with crenelated bezels

Also, make sure you practice how to actually use these things or they'll be pretty useless just in case you do need to use them... so practice hard until you can make like a ninjer like me... like so (ninjer mask via old t-shirt is optional):

Btw, just in case you didn't notice, I was kidding about bringing deadly weapons along. The duffel bag is for my tennis balls and racket. I do bring the baton, flashlight and one stungun along though.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

My pen
danced frantically along the book’s pages, making a rhythmic scratching sound
as I wrote with unbridled enthusiasm. It had been hours since I’d begun this futile
effort, but I couldn’t stop now. My blood-engorged eyes had already succumbed
to the eyestrain hours ago, but I still couldn’t stop. I had to continue no
matter what.

“Great… the
words are flowing well today… must keep going…” I thought to myself.

"But...
no one in their right mind will actually read this story. Why are you so
motivated to write it?" A stern, calm voice said from behind me.

She
was right, you know. It’s not that the story itself lacks potential, but it’s just
that I was never even a writer in the first place. No one in their right mind
and in my situation would even continue with this fool’s errand, but still…

“It
doesn’t matter. It was his dying wish.”

"That
person was a stranger! You never even knew each other." She said
emphatically.

"Still...
he asked for my help... that's all that matters."

I
paused for a moment and turned to face Kara.

"And
so... even if no one else reads it, I will continue to write this story."

"I'm
afraid I don't understand you."

And
she had every right to say that, of course. After all, we’d only started seeing
each other quite recently… and therefore, as much as we liked each other, there
were things about me that she couldn’t have known and vice versa.

"Then...
perhaps you will understand it better if I tell you my story."

She
smiled sweetly and then pulled up a chair and sat down beside me.

“Ok,
I’m listening.”

“You
see, ever since I was a child. I've always had trouble relating to other
people. I believe the doctors said I had this strange mental condition. Even
though it did not affect my ability to function well in society, I could never
really empathize with other individuals.

Do
you know how it feels to never be able to connect with someone else? Even your
own parents?"

That
wasn’t really a question, and she knew that as well. Kara nodded twice, which
was my signal to continue.

“I
did... it was the only way I knew how to live.

And
so, I grew up, got a good education and eventually became a schoolteacher.I had hoped that the nature of my chosen
field would allow me to somehow make a connection with other individuals...
even just once.

But
of course, everything was for naught.

Try
as I might, I could not find any meaning in human interaction.

To
my students, I was probably nothing more than a slightly aloof professor, but
to me, they were nothing more than annoying sacks of meat that I had to
tolerate so I could receive my next paycheck.

One
night, as I was walking home, I saw a group of thugs assaulting an old man.

Naturally,
I hid in the shadows to ensure my own safety.

As
expected, I felt absolutely nothing as I saw the thugs take pleasure in beating
the old man to within an inch of his life. Neither pity nor guilt, nor even a
sense of helplessness… which I’m sure anyone else might have felt.

I
just stayed back and waited for them to finish.

And
then it happened. I had tried to avoid it, but the old man made eye contact
with me.

Of
course, at this point, the thugs were long-gone and I had nothing to fear. With
his dying breath, he reached into his coat pocket and took out what appeared to
be a notebook journal. Without thinking, I came closer to hear him out.

‘This
is my life's work. Within these pages is written the greatest story in the
world.’ Was his bold declaration.

‘Take
it... it's yours now.’

And
he was gone.

Of
course, I had no reason to believe the old man's claims. Nevertheless,
curiosity got the better of me and thus, I opened the book...

The
pages were crisp and clean – almost brand new. But that wasn’t the most
surprising thing… no, more than that, the pages were all blank. Absolutely
nothing was written.

“What?
Then I really don’t get it. I thought you said this stranger asked you to finish writing
his story for him.”

Kara
was understandably flabbergasted.

“And
so... that's why I continue to write in this book despite not having any talent
for crafting tales nor ever having written a story all my life."

I
carefully capped my pen and put it aside.Closing the book, I once again turned to face Kara, and this time, I
looked deep into her eyes as if I were searching for something.

They
were emerald green – very beautiful, I’m sure a more talented wordsmith could
find better adjectives to describe them, but this was all I could think of at
that moment. At the same time, I felt moisture on my cheeks as I mentally
recalled the feelings that overwhelmed me the moment I opened that book.

“As
for the old man, I never knew him nor did I care to find out who he was. He
might have been a frustrated author, a homeless individual, a drunkard or even
just a deranged person for all I know. It doesn’t really matter…

What
I write might be considered complete trash – no publisher in their right mind
will even think twice about sending it through the shredder, and it certainly
will not qualify to become the greatest story in the world, but even if no one else
will read it, I will continue to write this story… because for once in my life,
someone had given me a purpose.

When
I first opened that book, at that moment, for the first time since I’d gained
conscious thought, I was able to connect with another human being – one that I
barely even knew.”

“But
you’re wrong…” Kara reached out to me and took my hand firmly in hers.

“I
will read it.”

The End

Author’s Notes: This was originally an improvised
script that I made on-the-fly while having a casual chat with a group of
friends over IRC. The plot itself felt a bit raw, but I liked the idea of an
apathetic individual making a special connection with someone, so I just went
along with it. Naturally, I’ve edited the rough draft I initially made quite a
bit, and for those of you who are familiar with my current obsession, you might
notice some traces of Hayate no Gotoku’s doujinshi arc here and there. In any
case, I hope you enjoyed this rather half-baked short story and I hope to see you again in future stories to come.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

So in the last chapter of Hayate, we saw a glimpse of Nagi's new rival for the Sanzen'in inheritance named Hisui... at least the side of her face and her back, anyway. Like so.

What an evil-looking little girl

So based on this much visual information, we can probably safely assume that she'd have a more or less cute/pretty face like the other female characters in this manga... maybe something like this? The actual colors are anyone's guess.

I just thought of "Dark Nagi" while drawing this.

However, we need to keep in mind that Hisui is Jenny's sister... now as we all know (at least based on Nagi's childhood memories), Jenny looks like this. (as re-imagined by Hayate.)

Remember Jenny, folks?

Therefore, taking all the visual information we have on Hisui's build and clothing so far and then factoring in the fact that she is Jenny's sister and thus, there might be a family resemblance, we can safely conclude that Hisui Hatsushiba might look something like this. (as we will find out in the next chapter.)